The subject of rising crime in Minneapolis has become a part of the
charges of failure in our city's mayoral race. Minnesota Public Radio
had a recent guest on that discussed the temptation to pass quick
judgment when city rates either rise or fall. It is too simplistic, he
said, for cities to claim success on falling rates as it is to condemn
city leadership for rising rates on the short term. The problem he said
is like the stock market, we should not put our whole portfolio on the
line for a single set of numbers that do not reveal future probability.
Its a crap shoot. Neither, he said, should we jump to conclusions based
on one or two years of crime figures. That is way too short a timeframe.
That made sense to me.
Best wishes,
Laura
On Monday, June 13, 2005, at 12:06 AM, Guy Gambill wrote:
The decline in crime rates is not a localized
phenomenon, it is a nation-wide and not clearly
understood trend. In support of this lack of clarity,
one can reference the Minneapolis City Attorney's
5 year Business Plan: Therein, on page 5 under
"Significant Trends", paragraph 2, the following
passage may be found;
"The number of criminal cases is declining. In
CY 2003 the Criminal Division handled 35,393 cases:
In contrast, the Office handled 43,961 cases in CY
2002; 44,970 cases in CY 2001; 51,808 cases in CY
1999 and 63,887 in CY 1998. It is unclear why this
caseload decline has occurred or whether it will
continue."
Similar commentary can be found in UCR data
reports throughout most (not all) metropolitan areas
of the US.
Laura Waterman Wittstock
Candidate for Minneapolis Library Board of Trustees
DFL and Labor endorsed
Minneapolis, MN
612-387-4915
www.laurawatermanwittstock.com
http://laurawatermanwittstock.blogspot.com/
Wittstock for Library Committee
913 19th Avenue SE, Mpls, 55414
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